A few months ago, I received an email from Nick Justicz (a comedy aficionado who has worked alongside comedians at The Comedy Store) commenting on my humor research. One part of his email stood out to me: I was watching the great film “The Pianist” the other day with some
It may sound crazy to some of you, but I recently made the choice to stop caring about football. The seeds were planted many years ago when I skipped a Super Bowl (the Packers were playing, I think.) The three reasons why I stopped caring about football: 1) Health: Three-and-half
Why does absurdity lead to humor? Basically, somethings are so wrong that they spontaneously don’t seem real. BTW, here is the hilarious flowchart: …. Learn more about the benign violation theory. My paper on psychological distance, which features work on hypotheticality: Humor is ubiquitous and often beneficial, but the conditions
The Humor Code‘s friend, Alf Lamont (@alflamont), has put together a potential panel for SXSW. I am on it, and here is my shameless attempt to get you to “pick” it. Here’s the rub: You ONLY HAVE UNTIL 8/31 to vote. Come on – hook a brother up. Register your
I am taking a sabbatical from my regular professor gig during the 2012 – 2013 academic year — starting right about now. What a sabbatical is: A leave granted by my employer, which I am eligible for every seven years (assuming I haven’t engaged in moral turpitude). A sabbatical is
In just a few days, doctoral students and post-docs who hope to score an assistant professor job in marketing will be flying to Chicago. There they will participate in a round of short interviews in which they present their best research. Where it goes down. Dan Goldstein of Decision Science
As part of my Humor Code project, I am in Peru with a hundred clowns. Yes, clowns. Real clowns. The project is part of Patch Adams’s Gesundheit Institute. We are examining the role that humor plays in healing. Here is an email I got before getting on the plane: We
I recently gave an Ignite presentation about the Humor Code’s Mad Men experiment. It was a pretty funny affair – thanks to some very creative ad folks who were inspired by the Benign Violation Theory. Look here if you want to see more (funny) diagrams. If you are curious about
In this introspective episode of Solo Thoughts, Peter McGraw delves into the life-altering insights gained from a year’s worth of solo psilocybin trips, exploring
Welcome to the final episode of I’M NOT JOKING. Comedian JD Lopez returns from Episode 1 to debrief and reflect on Peter’s experience building
